Sheriff Joe Arpaio, guilty of racial profiling? You don't say? Next thing, they'll be telling us Zonies that we all live in a desert, or something.
See Also: Judge Snow's Decision Damns Not Just Arpaio, but All of Maricopa County Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos
Arpaio's statements over the years should leave no doubt that his views on race and ethnicity are of the pre-Civil Rights Movement variety. And in some cases, pre-Civil War.
But being a bigoted pol in a racist county means never having to say you're sorry for the dumb, prejudiced pabulum you spew. Well, except when it comes to defending yourself in federal court against charges of biased policing.
The ten quotes below lend ever more credence to federal Judge G. Murray Snow's recent ruling in, Melendres v. Arpaio, where the jurist found that Arpaio's agency discriminates against Latinos and enjoined it from doing so further.
Particularly egregious is the one where Arpaio talks about the ethnicities of his daughter's adopted children. See, no one is spared, not even members of his own family.
Class act, that Joe.
10) "I appreciate your support. You're on the right track. You're doing what you should be doing."
--Arpaio speaking to the extremist anti-immigration group United for a Sovereign America in 2008, with neo-Nazi and Joe-supporter Elton Hall in attendance.
9) "The good news is, all these people are leaving. They're going to other states, or back to Mexico."
-Arpaio to United for a Sovereign America members at the same meeting in 2008.
8) SANCHEZ: But you just told me -- let's go back here. You just told me that you arrest a people and turn them over to the Feds even if they haven't committed a crime.
ARPAIO: No. They did commit a crime. They are here illegally.
--Arpaio to CNN host Rick Sanchez in 2009.
(Note: According to the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona v. United States, "As a general rule, it is not a crime for a removable alien to remain present in the United States.")
7) "Which is, if local law enforcement comes across some people, that have a erratic, or scared, or whatever, you know, they're worried, and if they have, their speech, what they look like, if they just look like they came from another country, we can take care of that situation. But I don't need that anyway, Glenn, I can still do the job."
6) "They [Mexicans] like to fight each other."
-Arpaio to Glenn Beck in the same 2009 interview.
5) "Certain criteria; no identification, look like you just came from Mexico, and they admit it, so that's enough. We had no problem in identifying the people that we stopped."
--Arpaio to Channel 5 in 2009, explaining MCSO criteria for stopping people during the sweeps
4) "My daughter has adopted children of various ethnicities . . . I got a black, a Mexican with Down syndrome even. And yet I'm the racist, I'm the fascist, I'm the Hitler!"
--Arpaio, as heard by a reporter for GQ magazine in 2009.
3) "All these people that come over, they could come with disease. There's no control, no health checks or anything. They check fruits and vegetables. How come they don't check people? No one talks about that! They're all dirty. I sent out 200 inmates into the desert, they picked up 18 tons of garbage that they bring in -- the baby diapers and all that. Where's everybody who wants to preserve the desert?" --Arpaio to GQ magazine in the same 2009 article.
2) "Well you know, they call you KKK. They did me. I think it's an honor. It means we're doing something."
-Arpaio to CNN host Lou Dobbs, 2007.
1) "I already have a concentration camp...It's called Tent City."
--Arpaio at the Arizona American Italian Club, Phoenix, 2008.
